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53 °F 5 Day Forecast Monday, October 20, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend October 7, 2003 Clinton monuments get high court’s OK By ROBERT GEHRKE The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt praised the Supreme Court for refusing to consider a lawsuit challenging the creation of national monuments in five Western states. The court reinforced the president’s power to protect federal lands, Babbitt said Monday. "I would suggest this is good news for future presidents," said Babbitt, who oversaw President Clinton’s designation of 19 national monuments under the century-old Antiquities Act. "This is a statement that the Antiquities Act continues in full force and will be available for future presidents to continue a centurylong tradition that has been extremely productive and helped shape our national park system and our system of refuges of all kinds," Babbitt said. Advertisement One of those created by the Clinton administration was the roughly 52,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon, signed into law in June 2000. The monument is on the eastern edge of the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District. The Mountain States Legal Foundation of Denver, a conservative public interest law firm, said Clinton overstepped his authority in making the June 2000 designations in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state. And Tulare County, Calif., argued that restrictions on timber harvesting as a result of the designation of a California monument have turned the forest into "virtual tinder boxes" that threaten safety and property. Bush administration lawyer Theodore Olson said lawsuits against the president over the designation of national monuments are not allowed. Last October, an appeals court dismissed Mountain States’ challenge, saying it failed to spell out how the proclamations exceeded the authority that had been conveyed by Congress. The Supreme Court on Monday let the appellate ruling stand. Attorneys for the groups challenging the monuments did not return phone messages. The Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to protect land threatened by development. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to use it to establish Devil’s Tower in Wyoming as a national monument. Since then, every president but Reagan and the two Bushes have used the power to create or expand a monument, establishing about 120 monuments spanning more than 70 million acres. Clinton used the Antiquities Act to create 19 monuments and expand three others, protecting 5.9 million acres. State and local officials, ranchers, off-road vehicle users, oil and gas companies and others complained that his proclamations locked up too much land. Babbitt said careful research went into decisions on boundaries. The Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona was cut almost in half because archaeologists said part of the area proposed for monument designation didn’t warrant protection. Jim Angell, the Earthjustice attorney who defended the monument designation, said that, in addition to reinforcing the appeals court decision supporting the president’s authority to designate monuments, it put to rest an argument floated by the Bush administration that it had the power to shrink or eliminate monuments, as well as create them. "Monuments have a strong public constituency and it would have been a pretty blatant affront to those constituencies to start shrinking or eliminating monuments," Angell said. "This is the last nail in the coffin of that argument." In addition to the Cascade-Siskiyou, the monuments that were the focus of the legal challenge are the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Ironwood Forest National Monument, and the Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona; the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado; Giant Sequoia National Monument in California; and the Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington. The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of planning how to manage the monuments. The lawsuits did not affect that work. The cases are Mountain States Legal Foundation v. Bush, 02-1590, and Tulare County v. Bush, 02-1623. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times